Join Us On The Road

Canada

July 2007.............

Columbia Icefield: Located in the Canadian Rockies on the Continental Divide. It is mostly in Jasper Natl Park, up the Icefield Parkway from Banff. The area receives about 23 ft. of snowfall a year and feeds eight major glaciers. Part of the icefield, the Athabasca glacier, is viable from the parkway. We traveled on the glacier in "Snowcoaches". While there you can get out and walk on the glacier. Be sure and take warm clothes, it is very, very cold on the glacier.

Columbia Icefield

July 2007.............

Banff & Banff Springs Hotel: The hotel was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and opened in 1888. It is in the Banff National Park, in Alberta, Canada. The hotel was rebuilt after a fire in 1920's. The hotel has recently undergone an extensive renovation, however it didn't change the hotel's original grandeur. It is in a spectacular setting in the Rocky Mountains, just above Bow Falls, and is within walking distance of Banff. The hotel has been open year-round since 1968 when it was winterized. It is considered one of the premier resort hotels of the world, and just being there was pretty awesome. We ate a buffet lunch, somewhere around $46. each, but worth it. The town of Banff, which is in the Banff National Park, is pretty torn up with road construction, so we didn't see much. One interesting fact we learned about Banff. You cannot live there unless you work in town. It's called "need to reside", and states "one must own and operate a business that provides their major source of income or must work in such an establishment located in the park to have the right to reside in the park". You can own rental property, but can't use it for personal use. The rule is to keep the prices down so people can afford to live where they work. That is not the case in Canmore, where our RV park was. The park was an older park with many permanent trailers. It is being converted to condo's and the price range starts in the five hundred thousand's.

Banff